This'll knock the smug right outta you

I had just replied to an email to a woman in my mom's club. She had just had her 2nd baby, another girl, and I was wondering how she had been doing. She was one of the group of ladies who had brought me a meal after my baby was born, so I returned the favor when her baby was born a few weeks ago. I had just sat at my computer, smugly mentioning that we had settled into something of a routine, and having two small children was entirely manageable. And that I loved having two little girls. Sugar 'n spice and everything nice, and all that trite stuff.

HA! Me and my big fat mouth. As soon as I shot that email off, chaos erupts. Ava, normally a fairly decent napper, would not go to sleep for her morning nap. She then crossed into that crazy, overtired, stressed mode that comes from not getting enough sleep...and no matter what I tried, this poor child would NOT nap. So finally I got her to sleep with nursing--which I know is a no-no because they're suppose to "learn" on their own, but it just wasn't going to happen this time--and then Liesl, who is supposed to be playing in her room and is not to come out without permission (and she KNOWS it), comes tearing into Ava's bedroom and yells, cheerfully, "HI! HI! BABY! BABY! OUT COLD! MAMA?!? BABY!" (Have I mentioned that I miss the times when she signed more than she spoke?) Ava's exhausted eyes fly open and she immediately launches into another huge crying jag--stiff, red-faced, eyes screwed tightly shut and WAILING. This is a baby who normally does not cry very much, but the kid had been up for three whole hours and was struggling to comprehend. So I tell Liesl very sternly, over the baby who is now screaming into my left ear, "Liesl, go to your bedroom RIGHT NOW!" Liesl, having just turned 2, runs into her room--SCREAMING--and proceeds to dump or overturn every toy, book, and small piece of furniture she has in her room, allthewhile yelling her fool head off. It took a full 20 minutes to clean her room up, while trying to keep my cool and not be the fourth and final female in this house to completely lose it. Did I say "fourth" female? No, you didn't miscount. In the midst of all this, my poor 19 year-old cat who has gone deaf and partially blind has started pacing the house, caterwauling, because nobody is downstairs with her and she can't "find" us. (It's surprising, really, the noise an elderly, 8-pound cat can make--her ears and eyes are shot but her lungs are just FINE, thank you.)

This, folks, is not my "normal" morning. Ava's naps are fairly routine and while Liesl is prone to having a "normal" 2 year-old crying tantrum here and there, she has never had a super-destructive one like she exhibited this morning. I'd like to say that the day got better--that Liesl returned to the angelic creature she usually is and Ava went back to snoozing peacefully and gurgling happily during her awake times...but alas, it was not the case. Thank You, God, for early bedtimes.

In the middle of this calamity, I thought wanly of the email I had just fired off boastfully to this other new 2nd-time mom...yep, confident new mother of two here has it alllllllll together. NOT!

Is it Friday yet?